The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language(1)

The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language § 1. The history of Old English and its development. In 409 AD the last Roman legion left British shores, and in fifty years the Islands became a victim of  invaders. Germanic tribes from Sothern Scandinavia and !orthern Germany, "shed from their  densely "o"lated homelands, loo#ed for a ne$ land to settle. At that time the British Isles $ere inhabited by the %elts and remaining Roman colonists, $ho failed to organi&e any resistance against Germanic intrders, and so had to let them settle here. 'his is ho$ the (ld )nglish langage $as  born. %eltic tribes crossed the %hannel and starting to settle in Britain already in the *th centry B%. 'he very $ord +Britain+ seems to be the name given by the "re%eltic inhabitants of the island, acce"ted  by first firs t Indo)ro"eans. I ndo)ro"eans. 'he %elts -ic#ly s"read over the island, and only in the north still eisted nonIndo) nonIndo)ro"e ro"ean an "eo"les "eo"les $hich are sometimes sometimes called +/icts+ the name given by Romans1. /icts lived in Scotland and on Shetland Islands and re"rese nted the most ancient "o"lation of the Isles, Is les, the origin of $hich is n#no$n. /icts do not seem to leave any featres of their langage to Indo )ro"ean )ro"ean "o"lation "o"lation of Britain  the famos Irish and 2elsh 2elsh initial mtations mtations of consonants consonants can be the only sign of the sbstratm left by n#no$n nations of Britain. At the time the %elts reached Britain they s"o#e the common langage, close to Galish in 3rance. Bt later, $hen %eltic tribes occ"ied Ireland, !orthern )ngland, 2ales, their tonges $ere divided according to tribal divisions. 'hese langages $ill later become 2elsh, Irish Gaelic, %ornish, bt from that time no signs remained, becase the %elts did not invent $riting yet.

 !ot mch is left from %eltic langages in )nglish. 'hogh many "lace names and names for rivers are srely %eltic li#e Usk     from %eltic usce +$ater+, or Avon  Avon  from awin +river+1, the mor"hology and  "honetics are ntoched by the %eltic inflence. Some lingists lingists state that the $ord down comes from %eltic dún +do$n+5 other eam"les of %eltic inflence in "lace names are tne follo$ing6  a fortress1  %arnarvon cothair  a uisge $ater1  )e, 7s#, )s# dun, dum a hill1  Dmbarton, Dmfries, Dnedin 8landovery, 8landdno llan chrch1  8landaff, 8landovery, coil  forest1  forest1  ilbroo#, illiemore  chrch1  ilbride, ilmacolm kil  chrch1 ceann ca"e1  ebadre, ingssie inis island1  Innisfail  montain1  Inverness, Inverrie inver  montain1 bail  hose1  hose1  Ballantrae, Ballyshannon, and, certainly, the $ord whiske $hich means the same as Irish uisge +$ater+. Bt this borro$ing too# "lace mch later. In the :st centry AD first Roman colonists begin to "enetrate in Britain5 Roman legions bilt roads, cam"s, fonded to$ns and castres. Bt still they did not manage to assimilate the %elts, maybe becase they lived a"art from each other and did not mi. 'ens of 8atin $ords in Brit Britai ain n toge togeth ther er $ith $ith many many to$n to$ns, s, "lac "laces es and and hills hills name named d by Romans ma#e " the Roman heritage in the (ld )nglish. Sch cities as $ordss li#e li#e cam#,  !orchester,  !orchester, "inchester "inchester,, Lancaster , $ord cam#, castra, castra, many terms of the %hristian religion and several several $ords denoting denoting armaments $ere borro$ed at that time by Britons, and atomatically $ere transferred into the (ld )nglish, or  AngloSaon langage already $hen there $as no Romans in the contry. In 449 the legendary legendary leaders of t$o Germanic Germanic tribes, tribes, ;engist and ;orsa, achieved British shores on their shi"s. 'he AngloSaon con-est, ho$ever, lasted for several centries, and all this "eriod %eltic aborigines moved farther and farther to the $est of the island ntil they manage to fortify in montainos 2ales, in %or$all, and "reserved their #ingdoms in Scotland. Germanic tribes #illed

%eltic "o"lation, destroyed %eltic and former Roman to$ns and roads. In the tes and 3rises, $ho "robably came to Britain a bit later, settled on the island of 2hite and in $hat is no$ ent  the $ord  $ent  derives from the name of the %eltic tribe %antii . Soon all these tribes fonded their se"arate #ingdoms, $hich $as nited after centries of strggle only in ?*? by Alfred, #ing of 2esse. Before that each of the tribes s"o#e its langage, they $ere similar to each other bt had differences $hich later became the dialectal "ecliarities of (ld )nglish.  !o$ a little bit abot the foreign inflence in (ld )nglish. 3rom the @th centry %hristianity start activities in Britain, the Bible is translated into (ld )nglish, and -ite a lot of terms are borro$ed from 8atin at that time6 many bisho"s, missionaries and /o"es officials come from Rome. 'he net gro" of foreign loan$ords $ere ta#en from Scandinavian dialects, after the =i#ings occ"ied mch of the contry in the 9th  ::th centries. Scandinavian langages $ere close relatives $ith (ld )nglish, so the mtal inflence $as strong enogh to develo" also the (ld )nglish mor"hology, strengthening its analytic "rocesses. any $ords in the langage $ere either changed to sond more Scandinavian, or borro$ed. Belo$ $e $ill toch this "roblem in more details. 'he (ld )nglish langage, $hich has -ite a lot of  literatre monments, came to the end after the  !orman con-est in :0@@. 'he ne$ "eriod $as called iddle )nglish. § 2. The Old English Phonetics. 'he "honetic system of  (ld )nglish "reserved in general the %ommon Germanic strctre of  sonds. ain "honetic featres of Germanic langages  Grimms 8a$ and =erners 8a$  are clearly seen in (ld )nglish, as $ell as many "rocesses $hich too# "art among vo$els and di"hthongs. ;o$ever, (ld )nglish is sometimes moving frther in develo"ing the "honetics, and that is $hy some of its models are a bit hard to trace bac# to the %ommon Germanic "eriod. 'hat is $hy $e decided to follo$ the $ay sggested by many lingists in descri"tion the (ld )nglish "honetics6 to offer the e"lanations com"aring to the Gothic langage, the most ancient of $itnessed Germanic tonges and the most archaic of them. 'hogh Gothic is referred to the )ast Germanic sbgro" of langages, its similar sonds, mor"hological forms and vocablary $ith (ld )nglish, (ld ;igh German, (ld Scandinavian and other ancient Germanic langages are -ite fre-ent. In the early edieval Age, $hen both Gothic and (ld )nglish $ere s"o#en, single langages of the gro" did not go too far from each other and remained very mch ali#e